1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for performing stock management of consumables in an image forming apparatus, and in particular, a toner collection box in the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is a management system in which a management server collects operation information, such as failure or counter information, of an image forming apparatus connected to a network. The management system thus manages the image forming apparatus by performing maintenance of the apparatus.
In such a management system, the image forming apparatus notifies, when a user has replaced a component in the image forming apparatus, the management server of a replacement of the component.
The image forming apparatus issues such a notification by causing the user to select, on a panel of the image forming apparatus, the component which the user has replaced, when the component has been replaced. Upon receiving such a notification, the management server detects that a consumable component in the image forming apparatus has been replaced, and arranges for delivery of the component to a client using the image forming apparatus.
Further, in such a management system, the management server receives from the image forming apparatus notifications such as a low toner notification and an empty toner notification. The management server then monitors a remaining amount of a toner cartridge available as stock in a location of a client of the image forming apparatus (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-159854).
There is a demand in the above-described management system to perform stock management of a toner collection box in which used toner is collected after the image forming apparatus has performed printing. In such a case, the toner collection box should be managed as a replaceable component in the image forming apparatus.
Consumable components other than the toner collection box are consumed in each usage of the image forming apparatus, and are replaced after the user has confirmed a level of consumption based on the counter information. In contrast, the toner collection box is not consumed even when the image forming apparatus is used, so that the notifications on the counter information and replacement thereof are not issued to the management server.